Cars are a little bit like pets. The years are not kind to either over the long run. The wear and tear begins to take a toll. They have less spring in their step, and moving around gets painful.

We notice the changes and hope for the best with a little more time together, but time waits for no one and no machine or pet. Sooner or later tough decisions have to be made and the pet or vehicle become a fond memory with a little heart-break when the decision to say goodbye is made at the end of the relationship.

It is essentially an ‘Old Yeller’ moment that forces people to move onward without a vital and fond link to their past. Sure we don’t typically have to shoot our pets like the young guy in the ‘Old Yeller’ movie, but we still have to take the final step in the circle of life for our cars or pets.

We had an email from a woman who was faced with the difficult task of a decision to get rid of her beloved 1978 Chevy Caprice station wagon. The car had been with her since she and her husband bought it as a low mileage demo on February 28 1979 from a GM dealership. She parted company with her beloved wagon on February 28 2013, exactly 34 years to the day it came into her family.

Station wagons were a few years away from execution by Lee Iaccoca mini-vans in 1979, so they were still the primary kid-haulers for most families in the late 70s in a Brady Bunch kind of way. This family was no exception and their $10,000-plus investment in the wagon was a sizable sum in 1979.

Her words: “The boys are now 40, 38 and 36. The husband took another road after 14 years while the car stayed with me and the boys for 34 years….the full distance to the present. The car was my most reliable partner in raising my three sons ..from nursery school to university years and beyond. Couldn’t have done it without the car and I will miss it dearly and always hoped that I could restore it eventually.”

That will not happen in this case. The grim prospect of an old car with many mechanical and body issues is an expensive reality for the woman. She has become a car guy by circumstance and loves her old friend the wagon because it represents a vital connection to her family and all of those fond memories associated with the car.

But the real world has crept into the equation and inflexible parking rules at her condo means that she had to get rid of her beloved wagon. She sees a lifetime of family memories in the wagon where others see a worn-out old vehicle, but the cold-blooded condo bylaw will win the day and the car that served her so well is a victim of a heartless regulation.

The car has been placed in the hands of a sympathetic car guy who labels himself as the “patron saint of unloved cars” to evaluate the future of the family legacy car. He wants to see whether he can save the car from death by crusher and I hope that the wagon gets a Walt Disney ending for this storyline – and not the Bambi’s mother kind.

52 Comments on “Car Collector’s Corner: When Is It Time To Let Go?...”

I loved my first car dearly, but financial circumstances and her condition after a year of sitting dictated that her brightest future was as a LeMons car. The others… well, one was bought as a parts car and outlived my expectations before it threw a rod, and another was traded for my current driver (I got the better end of the deal).

I’ve finally gotten to the age where it is clear I’ll never get to all those beloved vehicles I collected over the years and began giving them away or selling them last year , most are gone now , my 35 Y.O. son decided to hang onto a few he grew up riding in , best of luck to him .

Some never give up , I’ve bought quite a few oldies over the years from the families or County Estate auctions , there’s always plenty of Old Men’s Cars there for cheap .

Back in 1993 when I was just out of my teens I bought a 1990 Olds Cutlass Supreme ‘International Series’ sedan with 45,000km on it. My friends didn’t understand why I got a ‘family car’, but I didn’t pay them no mind- I’d arrived with my ‘performance sedan’.

Of course this was before I learned that GM10 cars were all BAD NEWS, but I managed to keep the beast going for almost twenty years, and more than 450,000 of my own kilometers on it. Finally last November I made the decision to scrap it with 499,455 on the odometer. A wrecker motor at 380,000, a wrecker transmission at 300,00 and a myriad of repeated repairs and it was time to send it off for $200 towed away.

I thought I’d have a hard time with it what with all the memories and such, but I didn’t.

Great story, thanks. What’s the condo regulation? She can’t park outside? Because in her garage she can keep whatever she wants, or have we gotten to the point where condos can forbid older cars from entering?

I still want to do that one day. Buy a car brand-new and keep it forever. However, until now, there always comes moment when I succumb to “buy-ititis”.

I disagree on two counts. First is that we’re only looking at the survivors here. Most of the cars from that era were junked long ago, and forgotten by everyone except Murilee Martin. This is a classic case of selection bias, because we’re only looking at the successes, rather than at the difference between the successes and the failures.

The second way that I disagree is that I have three cars from MY2004 in my driveway: a Prius, a Sienna, and an F-150. These are all 8-9 year old workhorse vehicles (with respect to their intended purposes), all over 100k miles (160k-km), all in great shape, all typical of for cars pf their age, all economic winners in terms of maintenance. I doubt many 1979 GM cars were going that well in 1988. And we bought them to use them and use them we do*. There are some great vehicles being built today, but predicting which ones will be the best in 30 years is anyone’s guess. I’m pretty optimistic about the chances of the 3 currently in my driveway, though.

* Except for the F-150, which has finished the task that we bought it for, and now it’s for sale.

P.S. Those computer-controlled systems in modern cars allow for mechanical simplicity elsewhere. The problem is that a lot of old school driveway tinkerers don’t want to add electronics technician to their list of skills. Fortunately, these systems are pretty reliable in their modern flavors.

Probably the car wasn’t moved frequently. Being almost as young as me and worn, someone must have rung the corporate body to have it gone.

Down here I’ve seen happen something similar, and the cases I’ve seen are usually unregistered cars parked in the curbside. They place a sticker in the windscreen and after 7 days they tow it. Their punctuality is Swiss-like, on day 7, the thing is gone. I saved the Saab I have in my driveway on day 5 or 6. Dunno if the neighbors are gonna cry foul, but it worries me from time to time.

And those B-bodies, when properly maintained, last forever. The 305 is a workhorse, that despite being a bit weak, will take the beating of its life and keep going. They also look far far better than the Panther, be it the square ones (hands down) or the UFO/whale ones.

Agreed as to the appearance of these cars. When I was growing up and they were common I hated them (born in 71). Nowadays when I see them (in nice condition) I think all of them lok wonderful. Nostalgia working.

Sentiments aside good run for the money. 10K of depreciation over 34 years, < 300 a year or a months payment in annual depreciation? Of course there were other expenses but darn good value for the money.

The car was legally registered,insured for the road and parked in her legal parking space, but never driven by the woman because of some mechanical issues. She kept it insured and registered because she wanted to hold on to it and felt that it would make fewer waves if it was up to date with insurance and registration. However, the intractable condo rules stood in her way, despite her best efforts.

Marcelo, a condominium development owns the property that surrounds each town house to include the streets.

Similar to a home owners association, they charge a monthly service fee for upkeep of the common areas and have the ability to regulate vehicle parking, etc.

To keep my 1971 VW Bus on the up and up – it must be have its registration and state inspection up to date – as well as being drivable.

Lucky for me the property manager doesn’t do weekends. So, all repair work must begin on a Friday evening and be done by Sunday afternoon – with the hope that one of the poodle dawg neighbors doesn’t file a complaint.

In Brazil, for a condo to be like that, the State can’t have done anything in the area of the condo. Not a meter of asphalt or plumbing or electrical wiring. I read somewhere that in all of the country there are two (in the State of São Paulo) that qualify. In my home state, some condos tried to things like that some years ago and there was a crack down. So, in practice, all the streets in closed condos are public and public law regulates parking and such. So if your car has collected property taxes, there’s nothing a condo can do.

Culturally, specially as to do with neighbor relations, Brazilians are much more relaxed. As a general rule.

Yeah, condo associations and homeowners associations in the US commonly overstep the bounds of what I consider culturally acceptable as an American, so I’ve never purchased property that required a homeowners association.

Homeowners associations typically go with condos and planned or gated communities. I get the message that I’m exactly the kind of upstanding handy employed home owning tax-paying law-abiding plebian riff-raff that the HOAs are trying to keep out by putting up the gates. And I appreciate the heads up!

Marcelo, I can’t speak for the lady’s circumstance but I have some friends in high priced condos (or townhouses) in these parts. In order for the condo/townhouse developers to get 200%-300% profit out of them (most townhomes around here only have $50-$60K worth of materials), they have to maintain the aura of exclusivity and to a lesser extent snobbery. Your typical used up 1978 Chevrolet doesn’t look well surrounded by leased BMWs and Lexus SUVs. Something similar happened to me in my bldg with my ’90 Town Car and this place isn’t even upscale, they just hated the fact it was an old boat that stuck out a little in the space (people apparently complained).

The bldg manager made a comment to me once about where I normally parked it, that it stuck out a good six to eight inches more than the other cars and people have almost hit it. My response was to move it to the farthest lot which worked for about a year.

Yeah I eventually had to get rid of it at the bldg’s suggestion, they forced me too when I registered my Pontiac with them, making it my third car (only two are allowed). Although in truth I was going to probably get rid of it because of the problems it was having.

I can sympathize to the intractable condo association. We have unassigned outdoor parking in my complex. I have two cars that sit outside in addition to an indoor spot. The cars must remain registered and drivable. If it sits too long, it is assumed to not be drivable and they will start hitting you with fines. One of my cars is not driven frequently, so I’m constantly moving it around the lot to keep them at bay. That’s to say nothing about the grief I get from neighbors and the condo board when I try to wash them, let alone work on them. The condo lifestyle was appealing when I was in my mid twenties when coming and going as I pleased was more important than worrying about upkeep and maintenance of a house. Not so much anymore…

Id love to have 3 cars. Ive only got one garage, and an assigned space (and i knew that going in) so i try to keep the space open for company. But i do have a scooter and dirtbike in the garage, and a couple of bicycles in the condo, so im ok as far as variety

The CC & R’s of condo by laws are made and enforced by the thought police nazis ~ paint your front door the wrong color ~ a fine . park an older car they don’t like ~ unending hassles , complaints from the wankers who have nothing better to do than run your life for you as _they_ see fit .

This is easy to do , if they set it up properly in advance . many gated housing communities now do not allow you to ride your Motocycle from the front gate to your house ~ you must either push it or leave it outside as random parking isn’t allowed either .

Most condo complexes utilize shared underground parking so it’s easier to control , for better or worse .

Freedom isn’t as easy to find as you’d hope anymore. Time was a man could do as he liked with his property, seems today if you’re not fighting a condo board you’ll just be fighting your local zoning board, borough gov’t, or municipal police with the myriad of rules, regulations, and standards they push down on you.

I know all about it having lived in a military dictatorship while it went through a coup (did you ?).

You’re right , most folks don’t take the time to read anything before signing the dotted line , I always do , that’s why I’ve never lived in a condo although I’ve seen some really nice ones go cheaply .

What you neglected to mention is : condos have periodic board elections so yes , you can move in and still get blindsided by the holier than thou jerks .

I now live next door to a drunken psycho-b*tch who’s always butting her nose over my (code) 8′ fences and writing up false complaints against me , this is very tiresome as I’m a good neighbor , living in The Ghetto , no noise ever , no loud parties , no junkers leaking fluids in the street , none of that crap most of my neighbors do but she fixates on me in my little quiet tiny house with neatly trimmed lawn and no trash allowed top be left in the street if it can be seen from anywhere on my property ~ I don’t care who drops it , _I_ go pick it up and sweep up the broken glass etc.

I’m not sure if you’re being a troll here or are just 100 % clueless ~ one vote against the rest of the condo complex is a fart in the wind .

Truly , I’m not trying to be rude but either you’re not a real Hands-On Car Guy or you don’t understand how things work .

I agree 100 % that ” All it takes for evil to win is for good men to do nothing.” but in condos , the deck is ever so carefully stacked by the negative nabobs .

The Code Enforcement Officer I initially battled with , was crooked and falsified evidence against me after I refused to give him a free car to leave me alone , he was certainly surprised when I showed up to the City hearing with multiple proof of my innocence including photographs he doctored and the actual on site photos , , proof of current registration of all the vehicles , copies of all my letters he’d never answered once and a Lawyer in tow .

Before the hearing got started , one Board Member , an angry 60 + year old lady , began asking the leader ” so what’s he guilty of ? we’re going to get him now , right ? ” this before the meeting was started but everyone had been seated .

I do not believe my case was anything different or special , this is how it goes routinely . I’ve heard it many times over before , that’s why I tried hard to comply and documented everything in writing and photos ~ I won but they still charged me thousands of Dollars for ” enforcement costs” ~ B.S. through and through .

Nate, is there something wrong with your keyboard that messes up your punctuation & spaces? It makes your posts jarring to read. Maybe that’s what has you all bad-moody, but I see nothing about your situation that has any bearing or relevance with being a “hands-on car guy,” so let’s drop the ad hominem.

Yes, I have served on HOA boards. I know full-well how power-hungry and dickish people can be. I know all about condos, and that those folks are typically more dickish than usual, run-of-the-mill, neighborhood power-mongers.

But here’s reality: most people aren’t dicks–it’s just hard to tell since being a non-dick also means you don’t stick your nose in other people’s business. Unfortunately, that’s a downside because too often they won’t get off their lazy asses to do anything about/for anyone else, which then leaves matters in the hands of the dicks.
Amazingly, most people in condos are also not dicks, albeit their rate of dickishness is higher in my experience. I’ve also experienced their rate of don’t-get-involved is higher, which makes for a lose-lose situation.

We used to have a board ruled by dicks, but we non-dicks got fed up and ran them off. My comment, which for whatever reason rubbed you so wrongly, was explicitly about that–if you have a problem in your neighborhood, serve on the board; get non-dicks to get off their asses and serve as board members, ‘compliance officers’ (or whatever you call them), architecture review committee members, etc.; change the bylaws if necessary. In short, don’t complain about evil winning when your good men have done nothing. While one vote by a person who never gets off his ass is irrelevant, one vote from a person who is on the board reining in others’ diskishness *does* make a difference.

If you don’t believe me & think I’m trolling–fine. Continue to wallow in your misery. If you aren’t interested in changing it, why should I object?

Go along and get along, man. i knew the rules going in, and im a good neighbor. Im also not a squealer.

You want to park your 1998 accord with major front end damage in your spot until its so dirty you cant see through the windows and there are cobwebs in the wheelwells? Cool with me. Someone will eventually say something, here. Eventually.

Some COAs really DO suck. Most of the “problem” owners i see are ones who come from houses, forced to downsize and bring all their Toyz and crap over.

The time to sell a long-term car is when it isn’t fun anymore to own it. We owned a very nice original 1958 Plymouth convertible for 32 years – bought it in 1966 or 1967. We had lots of fun with it for quite a few years, particularly while we were WPC Club members. There were summer shows and tours, regional and national meets. We’d put the top down in May or June and it would stay there until September. But we got older, the car got older, the WPC Club local section settled down in an area far enough away from us that we would have to drive an hour and a half to the start of a tour…I think the major thing that drove the decision to sell was that we couldn’t keep brake fluid in it; even after going through the entire system, replacing the master cylinder and all the wheel cylinders and changing over to silicone fluid. We advertised it in one of the Mopar specialist magazines and it sold immediately; a month later I drove it into an enclosed trailer for its trip most of the way across the country. Certainly there are times when we miss it but not so much that we question the decision to sell it.

I still have my first car, a 1995 Saturn coupe, and I’m in the same situation. I have been driving a new car since 2008, so I don’t need it. After over 360,000 trouble-free kilometres it still runs like new, but it requires enough repairs (exhaust, brakes, tires, windshield) to deter anyone from buying it (or even taking it for free). I just don’t have the heart to get rid of it. it has been sitting at my parents’ house motionless for nearly a year and my dad is really getting anxious to see it get off his property so I’m afraid a decision will need to be made soon. Anyone interested?

I’m in a similar position with my 98 SL2, only in my case its tip top for its its mileage/age except the transmission started slipping and from what I told needs replaced. I can afford to fix it I just don’t know if I should spend the money for a car I really don’t need anymore.

Its really a question of sentimental value vs the cost of keeping the car.

At some point, it just costs too much. The higher the sentiment or the more money you have, the longer you can hold on.

I’ve felt a twinge or two when leaving the lot where I wholesaled a car, but it never lasts more than an hour or so.

We have a Sienna that is coming up on 10 years of toting kid usage, so that may provoke some mild sentiment when I replace it next year (I buy new and replace at ~10 years). But the new van will be a good consolation.

My 77 Impala wagon was identical to the top wagon. I probably would have fought a condo assn. but the wife felt I needed something newer at the time I started experiencing ignition problems.

Two work vehicles later I have a 91 S10 that I think may last forever. Someone above said that simple design might be the reason they lasted so well. I think I agree with that. A 22 yo truck shouldn’t run as well as this.

Rather than fighting with the condo management or homeowner’s association; a better alternative may be off-site parking. Some of the storage unit places have storage parking for RVs and trailers; one near my house even has covered parking. That may be a better alternative.

Having to pay the storage bill every month may also give pause for thought as to whether or not to keep it every month. I dread when this decision point comes for the 1995 Taurus wagon; it has been hard to let go of some cars; but this one will be the hardest. So many memories of Mom and Dad, the boys growing up; and now the new memories since restoring it a year ago. Fortunately, the landlady never said a word when it sat it up without moving for four years.

I had fights about my dogs and the 260Z that I picked up to rebuild. That wasn’t even a condo or apartment. I lived in the Woodlands, TX which is a snooty planned community. I finally got over all that nonsense by buying five acres in the country and putting a home on it. Now anyone who has complaints gets referred to the MYOB and no trespassing signs at the road.

My first car in US was 1994 Ford Taurus. It was an abused car with uncertain but high mileage. It was basic GL trim, had weak 3.0L engine, troublesome transmission but looked beautiful outside and was large sedan (by European standards) and comfortable cruiser. However it was nowhere as luxury as RWD Ford Scorpio (which in comparison was like a luxury car). I had nothing but trouble with Taurus and always was thinking about getting of it. Finally when I earned enough money I bought a new car and passed Taurus to my son. My son hated it because it was slow, it was too big and had issues with AT. When we finally bought Ford Focus for my son I parked Taurus outside on the parking lot owned by apartment because my garage had space only for two cars. For several years it stayed on the parking lot – I paid insurance and tax and occasionally drove it around the town just to keep it in shape. Apartment manager did not complain about the car. But finally I had fed of paying insurance and taxes and driving in on weekend. I am the huge fan of original Taurus but GL is not something to consider as a classic Taurus so I donated it to charity. Believe it or not but when the charity representative came to y home to drive her away I looked at the blue oval on the trunk for the last time and almost cried.

I have my Dad’s last car, a ’67 Pontiac Catalina Ventura Cpe(my avatar), 60,000 miles. It’s in very good original condition, has been garaged it’s entire life. I’m a sentimental nostalgic kinda guy and can’t ever see selling it. I intend to pass it along to my son and hopefully he will keep it up far into the future.

I can really relate with this story. At one time I had no less than 11 of our old cars parked on my property behind the house, all of them kept in running condition but not insured or licensed.

As a pre-condition for buying my brand new 2011 Tundra my wife made me promise to get rid of all the old cars, trucks and motorcycles parked behind the house.

I made good on that promise, but it tore my heart out letting each one of them go. So many memories. So many good times. Nostalgia!

Now we’re down to three vehicles and I don’t know if I can let our 2008 Highlander go. I force myself to use it. Whoever coined the phrase, “parting is such sweet sorrow”, never had to part with a car.

We had a 1971 Ford LTD in our family for 30 years – I still remember test-driving them in August of 1970 with my dad, and picking up our factory-ordered car over the Thanksgiving holiday of that same year (hmmm, I could write a whole post on this car now that I think of it). All my childhood memories were in that car, and it was the same one I learned how to work on and then drive in the early 1980s.

My dad had ordered the factory shop manuals (still have them!) and I used to stay up half the night reading them. After we started having horrendously bad mechanical work done on the car, I decided that I could do better, and I did. I bought Craftsman tools during their annual hardware sales during which you got more of discount if you bought more items (sadly, they no longer do this).

I hot-rodded it (fuel-injected 429, cop tires, wheels, shocks, springs, rollbars, 140mph speedo, etc) during college and had collected about every possibly factory option for it out of the junkyards over a 10-year period. I was going to restore it, but a teen-aged driver rear-ended it while it was parked in front of my house in the mid-1990s. I straightened it out enough for the trunklid to stay latched (the old bumper jack inside the trunk really did the trick) and kept driving it.

Then I got into my own accident and wrecked the front left corner. I still kept driving it after that – it was awesome when merging into traffic, think Moses parting the Red Sea (with LF and LR smashed in), but the cops hassled me mercilessly every time they saw me in it (I live in a swanky area and they do this to everybody driving old cars around).

I traded the car for some tools in 2000, ending a 30-year relationship with the car (never having been completely restored – the accidents ended that possibility). The engine lives on in some 1950s Ford street rod.

I miss it in some ways, but it was time to let it go, especially after the accidents made it economically unfeasable to get it back into the condition that I wanted.

In the end, we all die, and our body/ashes as well as all of our stuff ends up buried back in the earth. Enjoy what you drive today, and keep it in good condition, knowing that someday it will be time to let it go. Take pictures of it now so you can post about it in 20 years!

One more reason, to add to the endless list of reasons to never live in a condo. A friend of mine had his near mint condition, unrestored ’70 Cuda vandalized repeatedly while he lived in a condo waiting for his new house to be built. The board nazis (I apologize to any nazis for comparing them to a condo board) complained endlessly about “That old junker” contaminating the palace that they lived in. After about two weeks of complaints, someone keyed the rear quarter on the side where it couldn’t be easily seen, then they keyed the other side, and the hood. All these keyings were deep into the sheet metal. Finally, a little wireless camera that ran on 12V was bought and installed and, of course, it turned out to be the elderly president and first lady of the condo board that were the vandals. The old coot got cuffed and carted off for one long night until he bailed out, his wife was on oxygen and they just summoned her. He and his wife resigned in disgrace from the board, and soon moved down the road. My friend sued them for damage to his original paint, and got a nice chunk of change as a settlement. He got the whole car repainted, and sold it for a lot of money, as this happened about the time that musclecars peaked in price.